Flickr came out of left field today during the hoopla that was the Amazon Kindle Fire announcement and released their Android application on the Market. Users of the photo sharing service (especially those who pay for the Pro tier of service) have been anxiously awaiting any sort of communication from Flickr or Yahoo! about an Android application after watching Flickr issue update after update to its fantastic iPhone application.

That day has come, Flickr-ites! The application itself is very attractive and implements a new style of UI, unfamiliar to most Android users. It utilizes Flickr’s oft-criticized mobile site for some of its features. The real draw here is their in-app photo camera (think Lightbox) and the included filters, named after world cities. It’s an interesting approach, yes, but it’s a great way to get more photos onto the service from users. Once a photo is uploaded, the tight Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr integration that Flickr has rolled out over the past 2 years is seen on its Sharing screen. Sending photo links to your favorite social network is a snap and works really well.

The application takes a little bit to load–even on my Galaxy S II. I experienced a bit of a lag when starting it up, but once it’s up and running the experience is fantastic. Take a look at some of the screenshots below and let us know what you think in the comments. And for those of you not yet signed up for Flickr, the application has a simple in-app registration process to get you started snapping photos in no time!

Gallery

Dylan Andersen is a part-time developer, part-time student and full-time Android aficionado. Hailing from Colma, CA, he's knee-deep in tech territory. Currently working on his Bachelor's in English at San Francisco State University, he's always up to date on the latest mods, hacks, and applications for Android. In his spare time, he loves to drink root beer and incessantly play Battlefield 3.

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Just checked out the app–pretty slick, seems to be really well done. However, since my phone automatically uploads my pics to Picasa, I’m not sure why I would use Flickr. Granted, I think Flickr is probably the better service, but even if I take pics with my digital camera why would I upload them to Flickr now, when all of my camera pics are on Picasa? Just for convenience’s sake, I don’t know if it’s worth using Flickr since it means I’ll have to keep track of 2 services. Sure, you can open the Flickr app and then open the camera from there–but that’s so inconvenient compared to just selecting the camera app icon from my home screen.

Now, if Flickr implemented some kind of “instant upload” feature, then they’d really be talking…

Agreed. Flickr really needs to implement an “instant upload” feature. The Google+ app integration with Picasa is so rad. Especially with the “unlimited storage” that Picasa users get from uploading G+ pictures.. So awesome.

I can understand that, I guess, since the auto upload feature with Google+ is kind of sketchy sometimes. Even so, (to be competitive) Flickr should AT LEAST provide a widget that would launch directly to their app’s camera function. That’s just my two cents, anyway.